The Remorseful Knight
by Timberdew
Summary: Roxas decided to move to Twilight Town for studious reasons, just like any other regular adolescent. But then the unaccountable thing happened. AU, no current pairing, but can be decided later. Minor appearances of FF characters.
1. Beginnings

**No. I**

**~ Beginnings ~**

* * *

His eyelids flew open with a set and suddenly, breathing felt like the most hardest thing to do. Roxas clutched the front of his zipped jacket, gasping after air like he had been drowning a few seconds ago. He wasn't quite sure, why he was freaking out like this, now forcing himself to calm his breathing down.

Where was he? And how long was he out? Gradually, he managed to even it out, leaning back against the seat by the current lack of vitality.

He rubbed off the drowsiness from his eyes with the heel of his palm, groaning unintelligibly and fatigued. Once the boy had smeared his face, he realized that he had broken into a cold sweat, too. Waking up like this never left a pleasant sensation. It was like getting tossed back into reality by an unexplainable force, and he could barely register his surroundings, not entirely remembering what he was doing, before having his consciousness swallowed up by sleep. Roxas didn't even recall what the dream was about (or rather the boy couldn't), not with his mind racing in confusion and drawing a blank instead of answers.

His head peaked over the once occupied seats, realization dawning upon him.

_Right. Still in the train._

God, he almost forgot that. Roxas took a glance around in the compartment, feeling as if the square-shaped room had somehow gotten bigger. It had been filled with passengers minding their own business, barely even registering each other or Roxas sharing the same coach. It was however empty now, the only company around being his bag and suitcase.

_Please don't tell me I missed my stop_, the boy frowned with despondency, wondering what he'd ought to do now, if it turned out to be true. His hand searched unceremoniously after his phone device, rustling with the contents inside his backpack. His eyes squinted at the glowing digits, trying to focus his vision.

_"Arriving at: **Twilight Town**. Please remember to take along your baggage before leaving this train...-"_

The phone was shoved back to where it belonged immediately. _Nevermind__ the time, this **is** my stop._

Shoving himself out of the seat, Roxas had to do a bit of dashing, before the automatic door closed on him (it actually did catch his suitcase, though, and he had to pull it out with great effort). Grabbing the nearest stand with free maps of the town, he hoped this would somewhat help him with finding his way. "Excuse me-" Roxas called out, when he noticed a man wearing what seemed to be an conductor's uniform. The said conductor just finished with stamping tickets for the lady in front of him, as he turned around to face the blond boy approaching him. Roxas was dragging his traveling case (somewhat heavier than he remembered it to be), and stopped up as soon as he reached the man. "I'm looking for a ride to take, but I can't tell where to get a cab." He began, but the conductor looked a little puzzled with his eyebrows furrowed together. "Do you know where I can find one?"

"... There aren't any cabs arriving here at the station." The man told matter-of-factly, "And usually they don't."

"Oh..." Was the only thing Roxas could utter out, suddenly feeling eyes staring at him from other directions. He cleared his throat, "Then, could you tell me, where precisely this is on the map?" To that the conductor nodded grudgingly, but had the lost boy hand over the map, and a small circle of red marker ink was drawn around a spot.

"Here you go." Roxas thanked him, and retrieved the map back. When he took a few steps away towards the exit, he caught a sight of something without intending to. It was the conductor shaking his head, and to guess by his posture and expression, the blond had half an idea that it was meant for him. It caused Roxas to raise an eyebrow, but didn't have the care to ask.

Outside was the bright autumn daylight, and truth be told, there weren't any cabs parked nearby the station; not even cars could without a place to do so. Roxas figured the station must be built within the shopping district of the city, where only people were allowed to trespass. It felt entirely different standing here; a huge contrast to what Roxas was used to at home. He was used to the buzzing and glare-glowing lights, the overflowing amount of restless citizens filling the streets, even during night hours. Here was... peace. It was _peaceful_.

An old couple passed him by, and he noticed acknowledgement on their faces, as they nodded in greeting. Roxas hesitantly gave a short nod of his head to show a bit respect, not entirely sure if they wanted to be nice to him or that old people just were that nice in general. Half-wondering what he should do now, while dragging his case to a spot in the corner, the blond stared down over the forest of buildings beneath him. He admitted it was a nice view for one seemingly quiet town, placing his arms on the medium-high stone wall and leaned in.

Perhaps he should make a call.

He dug after his cell phone inside his backpack, unlocked it in a simple swipe with his thumb and ran though his contact list. Once he paused by a number, debating on wherever he should call the one who owned it, but shortly after decided otherwise. The phone was pressed to his ear, after finding the contact person he searched for. There was a moment of silence, then the monotonous ringing began.

It continued on, until it flicked on to the voice message option.

_Of course_, Roxas thought with a wry smile, _should have known._

The long tone came on, bringing the boy out of his thoughts. "Oh, hi! It's me, Rox." He turned around leaned against the wall with his free arm wrapped around his torso, almost sitting. "Just thought I'd ought to tell you that I arrived safely. No need of the worrying, though. I'm coping alright (here he scratched his nape, meaning the opposite), at least haven't done anything worse than getting lost." From the corner of his eye while talking, there were a few kids in his own age looking in his direction. Roxas turned to return the stare, but got puzzled by the next thing. The kids waved to him, a friendly kind. Not entirely done with fully registering the gesture, Roxas found himself waving back. "-Ah, I should get going. I only left the train minutes ago, and I forgot to grab a bite before boarding it. Give a call if you don't mind." With that, the boy lowered the device away from his head, pressing the end-button.

When he looked up again, the kids were already leaving, probably to do one of their ceremonious round on the arcade games. That's what Roxas would have done with friends.

"Good morning," He suddenly heard, the voice catching him off-guard. He watched a middle-aged man just passing him, and the guy was lifting his hat as well. Roxas realized that it was directed to him, but the man didn't seem to mind the blond's lack of response. "People are so friendly here." He began to wonder out loud with more than a mild surprise, slipping his phone into his back pocket. Definitely not the same as the ones from his city, which was perhaps an improvement. Roxas knew of the constant atmosphere of hostility and ignorance; the typical big city kind of environment. It wasn't that bad, though. People just didn't go over to a complete stranger and talk as if they knew each other, not even as much as acknowledging one another.

From then on, he deemed this town as a whole different universe, having realized how much he'd already compared it to his. Not forgetting the need of fuel for his stomach, the city boy reached for his bag from where he had left it on the ground, swinging it on one of his shoulders and grabbed the handle of his suitcase.

Finding a place to eat wouldn't be so hard, right?

* * *

Maybe he should have reconsidered his options.

When he stepped inside what seemed to be a cool enough barista shop, there weren't any customers around yet, making Roxas the first one of the day.

_It's a bit early_, the blond reminded himself with his wrist raised up to check the time. He got here around 9:45 am at the station, so the place had barely turned the wooden sign from 'closed' to 'open'. It would be somewhat uncivilized to just take a table, especially when he couldn't see any of the employees around. He got a good look on the interior chosen to this place, a good balance between slightly vintage and new-modern look. He had around 5 minutes to admire the shop's appearance, when someone came into view.

_Oh, finally._ He sighed in relief, spotting the uniform. He had been starting to feel awkward standing in the same place.

It was a girl, and she was coming towards him. Roxas made a polite smile, but soon it fell off and was replaced with a frightened face. The girl wasn't just approaching him; she was _stumping_ her way to him.

"About time! No people has come over yet!" She told, throwing her arms up exaggeratedly.

Roxas couldn't tell, if she was after him or satisfied to finally see a customer, until he was pulled by his arm and dragged further inside the shop.

_Definitely after me_, he panicked inwardly. "Wait, I'm not- where are we going?!"

"To get you dressed, you twit! I had to cover for you, otherwise the boss would be questioning too much!"

Get dressed? The boss? Did she think he was an employee?

"-Wait! I swear, I'm not the guy you're looking for!" Roxas raised his voice to get the brunette's attention, digging his heels onto the floor with effort.

The young employee turned to him, her face carrying a mild-bewildered expression, yet that wasn't enough to cover her annoyed look. "Not the guy? What are you- don't joke around with me-!" _Should have gone to that funny-looking restaurant on the other side. _She looked so frustrated and mad at him, he was starting to believe he had done something to make her this pissed off.

Except for he hadn't.

"But I'm not!"

Then the bells of salvation came.

"Sorry! I know, I'm a bit late-" Told a voice behind them, causing both the girl and Roxas to turn their attention - which was the blond's biggest mistake. "-I had to do a bit of a favor for Pence." The stranger told in a wheeze, the scarf wrapped around his neck almost touching the floor, as he bent to catch his breath. Even the coat looked like it was about to fall off his shoulder, until he fixed this with a single shrug forward. "He said it was something about a delive-..." He never really got to finish that sentence, when his head was lifted, expecting just to see the brunette. The previously apologetic (nervous) smile on his lips faded, a set of blue eyes staring in shock.

Roxas had never been so wide-eyed in his entire life, barely even comprehending what was right before him.

His jaw fell slack open.

The girl was just as flabbergasted, her grip loosening on Roxas' arm. Comprehension filled her face, as she turned to glance between him and the other blond nearby the entrance. "...Ven?" She asked the carbon copy with sudden awareness, briskly dropping her hand from Roxas.

Not that he could feel her iron grip letting go of his arm, because this here was _too bizarre._

Roxas saw himself standing in front of him, a complete replica. _But- how come?_

'Ven' was still frozen on his spot, his mouth slightly ajar, until he closed it and thinned his lips. He eyed the girl beside Roxas with furrowed eyebrows, appearing to be seeking for an answer from her. Unintelligent noises and a few 'but's came from her mouth, her hands frantically pointing from the first one to the other unsurely. Roxas couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like the other guy was trying to choose his words carefully. 'Ven' finally decided to open his mouth.

"I'm missing out on something, ain't I?"

* * *

_"This number cannot be reached. Please leave a message after the following tone."_

_Forget it._ Roxas groaned in frustration, almost slamming his phone on the desk he was sitting by. 5 calls, and none of them was successful to reach his mother. He figured that she would be the one to provide him the answers he needed, but it was hard to get in touch with the woman during this hour of the day. His brother wouldn't pick up his phone either, that theory was proven earlier.

The boy had expected that moving out here wouldn't turn into such an event, because no one really did that to begin with.

As crazy as this might seem, it was terrifyingly real enough. The guy, 'Ven' he recalled it as, was of flesh and blood, a real human being, with _his face!_ How could that be true? Questions kept swimming around in his head like waves, and he swore they were growing larger by seconds. Roxas kind of wanted to cover his head, scratch furiously through his hair, or rip off bits of it.

He got distracted, though, when a dish took its place in front of him.

"Sorry," It was the brunette again, her voice evidently filled with embarrassment. "I really thought you were my co-worker there. I've must have freaked you out, too."

"No, it's fine." He reassured, trying to aim for a smile, despite the obviously strange circumstance. "I would have been that wicked-looking, too, if I were in your shoes." He found himself blurting out without meaning to and cringed. _Be more disrespectful, why don't you?_

Fortunately, it made her laugh instead. "Yeah, I guess. Sorry again. It's just that you two-... Could you possibly be, I don't know... twins?"

"Believe me, I have not the slightest clue to answer that." And he really didn't. As far as this looked, he was the most confused one.

The brunette smiled with sympathy. "Say," She began, changing the subject. "what's your name?"

"Me? Just Roxas." He told simply, returning the smile easily. "What about yours?"

"Well, '_Just_ Roxas' (he heard her chuckled slightly); name's Olette." The brunette responded, pushing a few of her locks behind her ear. "I should let you enjoy your meal, before it gets cold, though. We can talk later."

"Right," The blond turned his eyes on the dish, unfolding the silverwares from the napkin. "Wait,-" Olette stopped and turned around to face him again, "It's just been bugging me... But who is Ven?" What did he exactly hope for an answer from the girl? But then again, who else could he really ask, if his mother, nor his brother could even explain this? What if they really didn't know? Olette shifted her head towards where the guy in question stood (now in the male's barista uniform instead of the casual attire), watching him preparing the bar, before new customers would get around.

She faced Roxas again, making what looked to be a thoughtful expression. "He's a nice guy," She said carefully. "-very helpful here. You could say that he's kind of unique, but he doesn't tell much of himself, either." She could see that it wasn't much to go on, so she offered a smile to ease the little letdown. "Why not ask him yourself? Who knows? You might be surprised at what you'll find out." A tiny voice told Roxas to not agree, saying it was a really horrible idea. Like really. But at the same time, he did want to know about his so-called doubleganger. There was a slight problem, though... how was he supposed to make an advance to him? Roxas glanced for the n'th time over at Ven, not really being able to hold back his curiosity. The other was drying off his hands with a piece of cloth, apparently done with doing whatever he did before. Ven looked up occasionally over the desk to check on things behind it, a sort of habit to make reassurances for himself. He was about to lower his head, when suddenly he caught something within his view. Roxas found that the other's eyes were directed at him, and he realized that he had indeed been caught _staring_, even if it wasn't on purpose.

He flustered up immediately, ducking his head down again.

_Great, now what?_ The anxious teen scolded and mentally kicked himself because of the vast slip up; and right when he was about to take the spontaneous chance to go talk. Maybe he really shouldn't try, at all. It could no doubt save him from an immense amount of awkwardness from befalling him.

Yet, while he wasn't looking and was unaware of his surroundings, the peculiar thing happened.

"Here." The slightly distinct voice from his own said, a glass with fresh water adorned with ice cubes placed on the table. Roxas, who had been too busy in his own thoughts, noticed the other blond-haired adolescent standing over him first now. He found himself getting tongue-tied, which wasn't often, and it unsettled him greatly.

"I could offer some tea to calm the jitters, but I wasn't sure if you'd like that."

"N-no, it's fine. Thanks." Roxas reached for the glass and raised it slightly to show he had accepted it.

Ven gave a civilized smile, "Don't mention it. Now, if there's anything else you need, just give a call."

"Sure. But," Hesitation kept pulling on Roxas' leg, but he decided to shove it aside and vocalize his question. "-aren't you gonna? You know, ask me a couple of questions? You seem so calm about the fact that we look a lot alike; at least calmer than I do."

He reckoned some kind of reaction (actually he wasn't sure of what to presume), but seeing the splitting image of himself chuckle was unexpected. "Oh, I am spooked out, and I do have some inquiries that need to be answered, but I assumed it would be audacious to keep you away from your breakfast." Which was true, as Roxas had nearly forgotten about the dis- _Wait. What kind of juvenile says '__**audacious**__' in an average conversation?_

"I, eh... would rather have you ask them now than have myself getting more anxious." Roxas admitted, inviting the other boy to sit down. Ven reconsidered this for a moment (probably wondering if his co-worker would be cool with it), taking a brief glance over his shoulder and choosing the chair on the other side of the table.

He began right away. "Well, first thing's first... You already know what my name is, so what are _you_ called?"

_Okay, normal enough..._ "I'm Roxas. Though, some people tend to call me Rox, including myself."

"I see..." He watched Ven slip into his thoughts for a couple of seconds, wondering what the other was thinking about. "And you moved here into this town to attend a high school; technically it's your 2nd year, so you've must have transferred, right?"

"Uh... yes, that's right." Roxas verified in a stutter, astonished by how accurate the other was. "How did you know-?"

A chuckle. "I didn't. I only noticed your luggage." Ven replied earnestly, glancing down at the suitcase next to Roxas. "Sorry, it's just that you don't look like a freshman; not really appearing to be nervous enough about school, so you must have gone through _'the dreadful first day'_ already." Right. Now that he thought about it, it did seem quite obvious. And of course he would have spotted the suitcase, not exactly hard to miss. "Your turn to ask."

Ven must have noticed more that what he told, because Roxas was sure as hell teeming with anticipation for some explanations, and he could see that the other knew it as well. "I know, it'll be difficult to answer, but..." His hands were working on cutting a piece from his meal, while he talked conversationally. "-just _how_ do we looks so much like each other? As far as I can tell, this is the most _surreal_ thing that has ever happened in my whole life."

"I guess none of us expected this to occur." Ven stated contemplatively, leaning his back against the backrest. "I don't even know, who I should go and ask. And since both of us don't know what to make out of this, perhaps it'll be better to let it off for now."

"Seems the most logical," Roxas agreed, not really wanting have this go over his head and do some brain damage.

A grin spreaded out on Ven's lips, "Until then, we could just stay as friends. It's not everyday you can have yourself as a companion without looking like a narcissist, if you get what I mean."

In some way, Roxas couldn't help but get this twinge of warning. It was like a foretoken of things to come - things that could possibly change his life, whether for the better or for the worse. If he listened to it, then maybe he wasn't going to know more of these presentiments. Maybe he would avoid situations he didn't want to partake, and maybe that would have been best for him.

But Ven didn't seem so bad.

It was peculiar, perhaps more than just strange, but he couldn't see why he should choose otherwise. Roxas probably didn't know, what was waiting for him in the future. Nor would he know, what he would come to face, as the days passed with the other blond in his company. But wasn't that for him to find out?

And also... what could possibly hurt, if he accepted?

"Sure, why not?"

* * *

**Author's note:**

Didn't really think it'd go well, so it's an accomplishment. =) I usually don't have the ability to write long chapters (don't know whether it's because I can't piece words together so good, or if it's because I lack the patience). I know, it's badly typed, and there's probably a load of mistakes. But this is my first posted fanfic, and as a huge fan of Kingdom Hearts, this was really fun to write.

So technically, Roxas is a transfer student from a far away city, having not been in Twilight Town before. I can't tell much more about Roxas and Ventus or about how their relationship will be, as it is for you to find out while progressing through the coming chapters.

Much else isn't there to mention, so this my cue to end this very first chapter here. I'll see if there's anyone interested enough to follow this. See you around!


	2. Things that remain unperished

**No. II**

**~ Things that remain unperished ~**

* * *

It had just been a few days, since he met Ven, but Roxas felt like the time was moving slowly. Within those days, he found out that Ven had been looking for someone to share the townhouse he lived in. Not that living in his friend's older brother's house was bad, but he truly saw it as imposing, even if Sora said that he and his brother would be cool with it. He had told that he would stay, until he found himself a place to live in the rest of the two years, he would have in this town.

"You sure about this?" Sora had asked by the door, while handing over the blond's jacket. He looked a bit down, but it was worry that shone through the best.

Roxas took the jacket with a slight nod. "Yes. I've already agreed." He smiled reassuringly up at the usually jovial teen, finding it a bit queer to see Sora with such an expression. "Hey, cheer up. It's not like we won't be seeing each other again."

A sigh, then a half-smile. "I know... I just thought that you'd stay a little longer before this would happen."

"I'll come and visit, if you have to be _this_ depressed." Roxas had said jokingly, laughing a bit.

"I'm not depressed!" The brown-haired boy protested at once, prompting a laughter from the other. Sora had to do more than their usual fist-pumps and went to hug his friend to say a proper good-bye (althought, they would be meeting again at school).

That was at least 3 days ago.

He still remembered the event, when he saw Ventus' home. At first, he doubted that he had found the right place, glancing down at the address written on a piece of paper, which he had gotten from the other. It was in a quiet district, probably the residential one and possibly a finer quarter with townhouses in rows, but not that far away from the main district, either. Just a short train ride between the two places.

When he rang the doorbell, and no one came for it, Roxas frowned with knitted eyebrows. Maybe Ven wasn't at home or maybe he didn't live here at all, and this was someone else's. He read the crumbled sheet again, doing a last confirm on the address.

This was the right place.

For all he knew, there could be tons of reason why Ven couldn't take the door.

_Maybe I should try it myself..._ he thought and grabbed the doorknob in a halfhearted attempt. When it worked, he figured the door must have been unlocked the whole time. Unsurely, the blond took a glance over his shoulder and wondered if he should just go inside. In the end, Roxas entered through the front door, since he didn't want to stand outside forever (and people might have asked, too).

It was a little dim in the small passage, the only open door was the one in the center.

"Ven?" He called out doubtfully and moved further inside, speculating whether the young barista was here or another person to chase him out again.

The moment he stepped inside the room, however... he realized the place was not, what he had expected it to be.

Roxas spotted Ven on a ladder, apparently in the job of setting books into a wooden bookcase. The furniture seemed to fill the entire wall.

"A-hem," He cleared his throat to announce his arrival, causing the other teen to turn around his head.

"Oh, Roxas!" Ven flashed a grin, holding onto the ladder with one hand, in case of slipping off. "You're early; I was just about to straighten up a bit here."

"Well... I thought, it was an appropriate time to come over..." Roxas replied a bit distractedly, not being able to take his eyes off his surroundings like a tourist on a sightseeing, which totally felt like it. Being at the same age as Ven, he thought the place would look more like a teen's choice of things, like games shattered on the floor, beanbags and a supply of hero comics in a cardboard box for example.

Maybe even the evident sight of leftover snacks and cans of carbonated water (that's how Sora's brother's house looked, anyway).

Instead, it was like walking into an astrologist's workplace, a sort of a wise man's sanctuary. There was definitely more than just one telescope, and they were all made in different designs out of different materials. Roxas spotted a few more bookcases inside the next room, along with a desk in the centrum made out of dark wood and embellished with ornamental carvings. Behind it was a large round-shaped window, and the bookshelves stood on either side of the room with a decorative carpet in the middle of the floor. Scrolls and maps were flowing over the desk, almost making it impossible to see what else was on. If there was anything in common with the one he stayed at before, it was the messy part.

"This is...-" Roxas tried to form a sentence to make a suitable comment, but lamely settled on: "- different."

Ven chuckled a little at the words, sliding the last book in to its rightful place and climbed down the ladder. "I know... or so I have been told. Sorry about the obvious clutter, though."

"No, it's fine...!" Roxas said at once, finally tearing his blue eyes away from the extraordinary sight. "I just didn't think your place would look like this." Which was the most honest remark he could utter out at the moment.

"It was my father's." Ven hopped down the last few steps and went immediately to clear off the couch.

"Your father's?" Roxas raised an eyebrow slightly, momentarily abandoning his luggage.

"Yes," The scrolls of blueprints and old maps were gathered into Ven's arms, "-explains the star globe and the constellation model on the ceiling, along with basically everything in here. He was kind of a starry-eyed scientist, but he loved to travel more than to sit down behind a desk." Roxas noticed the slight change in Ven's tone, like how he was speaking so fondly of his father, yet there was something else behind it, which he couldn't quite decipher.

"And did you say _'was'_?" He picked up what appeared to be an old journal from the coffee table. It looked pretty worn, too.

Ven took it as soon as the asking teen had it in his hands, before the title was even read. "Yes, I did." He simply stated, his back turned to the other. He was already on the other side of the room, when he continued: "It's just me now in this clustered habitation called home - and you of course." More wasn't told, but it left a couple of questions regarding Ven's father.

Roxas wondered... _what exactly happened to him? And how long had Ven lived by himself?_

Why He didn't ask about it on that day, he could now only ask himself why, too. Maybe it was because of the absent of his own father, that made him neglect the opportunity. But during that time, he didn't know it was there in the first place.

After the maps and scrolls found a shelf inside a closet with glass doors, Ven led him to the room, which he now resided in. There was a single bed by the window, a cabinet and a dresser, and also a writing desk he could use for his studies. Unlike the rest of the apartment, this appeared slightly plain and barren of anything related to the piles of brass gizmos. _This could be very nice,_ Roxas recalled himself thinking. He so far liked the scenery of the station tower from the window, the building standing tall in the far distance, adorned with the late sunlight radiating against the structure and the mighty bells. Even if he wasn't a poet, the boy admitted it was quite the sight.

Three days after the event, Roxas' belongings now filled the previously empty spaces in the room.

It was one morning, when he found out, what Ven's full name was.

The latter was occupying himself with repairing an old widget, and Roxas had barely gotten out of the bed, as he went to check on what the other was befuddling himself with. "What's that?" He questioned sluggishly, holding a bow of cereals and pointed the spoon at the small device.

"Something I got, when I was little." Ven replied without looking up, his eyes fixed on the object in his hands. He told that it had been broken for a long time ago, but he just didn't how to repair it at that time. He also mentioned that it had been his own fault for making it break. "Oh, could you get the mail for me? I saw the post carrier earlier on by the window, but then I got distracted..."

"Sure, I'll get it." It was a small favor, after all. Roxas didn't really bother to take his jacket on and stepped outside into the cool morning air. It was a small walk towards the mailbox, considering it was right by the front entrance. He unlocked it with mild difficulty, reaching down for the letters and the newspaper. The teen idly glanced at the letters, up till the point where he stopped his tracks. "_Ventus N. Fides_..." He read out curiously, lifting the envelope from the rest and turned it to look at the back. There was a some sort of seal strangely resembling to a heart, but no name of the sender.

He located Ven in the exact same spot he left him, the occupied teen deeply engrossed with fitting in a miniature-sized cogwheel. "_Ventus._ That's your real name, isn't it?" It was funny how Ven paused the mending of the gadget and face Roxas by the mention of his birth name, when he didn't even do as much as glance before. "It's surely a strange name to be called." He handed over the letters to the other blond, before taking the chair behind him.

'Ventus' sat upright on the couch, wearing what Roxas perceived to be a sheepish expression. "I...- I must forgotten to mentioned it then." He looked god-to-honest abashed at his own blunder (or maybe it was the name he was embarrassed of), his hand lowering down the screwdriver from the funny widget.

It became slightly awkward, when none of the boys said anything for a while, so Roxas tried to ask further about the other's real name. "So... I don't recognize the language. Could you tell me...?"

The other adolescent stayed quiet for a minute, mulled over whether he should tell or not. Ven shrugged, "It's Latin."

Roxas blinked in surprise, but he should have figured it out. "Really? Who speaks Latin?"

"No one does. It's a dead language."

Ventus finally chose to halt the restoration of his device for another time, unable to focus on the task any longer. Much more wasn't said. The topic was dropped, just as easily as Roxas losing ideas of what else to say. It didn't stop him from deeming the other as a strange case, however. Instead, it only intensified his curiosity, having learned (slowly, but surely) more about his new roommate.

Even his name was odd.

* * *

"So, have you settled in properly?" Sora asked casually with both hands placed against the back of his neck. Both he and Roxas had finished their classes for the day, leaving the school building behind as they walked.

"Not sure... It still feels weird, but I'm getting used to it now." The blond confessed, tucking his palms inside the pockets of his jacket. "There's still a few of them staring strangely at me, but I think I can get past that."

Sora furrowed his brows bemusedly, "I still don't get why they would. There's nothing bizarre about you."

"Heh, tell me about it."

In truth, Roxas knew exactly, why the kids gazed at him with such inquisitive eyes. It was quite obvious to him. Half of the school had seen his counterpart before, somewhere in their life. Most of them believed it was him working in that barista shop instead of Ventus - then again, they probably didn't know what the other blond was called to begin with. He had given a half thought about telling Sora of his living image, but the problem was how to say it. The brown-haired teen only knew little of his new roommate, having not really met the guy face to face yet. In the end, Roxas thought against it and decided to save it for later.

There wasn't an immediate need for apprising the other about Ventus (and he wanted to avoid having tons of new questions thrown at him).

"Well, it'll stop sooner or later... Don't worry much about it."

This was one of the traits, he liked about Sora. The boy was pretty laid-back, and though he might be exceedingly intrigued by every discovery he would stumbled upon, he was also a boosterish fellow, often did his try to cheer up friends in need or when they were completely fine.

And he was right; people couldn't keep watching the blond forever. At some point they'd find something new to do, and they always did.

"How about that new friend you got? Any chance I'd meet him, before the week ends?"

"Can't say, I haven't even asked him about it." Honestly, would it be a decent idea to let them meet? It was still unclear about, why Ven looked the same as him, and he wanted to wait introducing him to Sora, once he was sure about the real reason. "Have you heard anything from Zack?" Roxas changed the subject effortlessly.

Sora made a heavy sigh, his eyes going up the sky. "Not as of today, but he did said he would come back during the weekend." To that, the brunette broadened a smile across his face. "I can't wait 'till he returns. There's a lot I have to tell him about."

Roxas smiled, too. As he recalled it, Zack was always a nice addition, when it came to having fun. He turned to look at somewhere else than his friend, noticing that something was missing. _Now that I mentioned 'additions'... _

"Wait. Weren't you going to hang out with Riku today?" The blond teen questioned in mild puzzlement, when he realized the other teen's best friend had not appeared yet. "What caused the call off?"

Sora shrugged, dropping both of his arms down to his sides. "He said, he had something important to do, probably the club he leads."

"Oh, so he ditched you." The blond chuckled at the face the other made, receiving a lackluster punch to his arm.

Once they reached the market street, both said their goodbyes to one another and split up. Roxas waited, as Sora gradually went farther in the distance, until he was completely out of sight. First then he began to move his feet, turning towards the other direction.

It was busy on the streets; people were either set in lines by some of the shops, while others went in groups and talked animatedly to one another. Still, it didn't beat the hectic feeling his hometown handed out on a daily basic. Alternately, this was pleasant to take a gander at; busy, but on an enjoyable level. It must have been the first time Roxas saw the market street bustling with people - even the ice cream shop had a handful of eager munchkins waiting to get their cool treats.

Even though he was taking a different route than the one leading directly back to the townhouse, he wasn't here for window-shopping.

Sure, Ventus hadn't really mentioned about Roxas' half of the rental, but it still needed to be paid. To be able to do that, he required a place to earn the cash, just a part-time job, since students couldn't work full-time. Roxas half-wondered, if he should try for the candy store, but dismissed the idea as soon as the thought was there and flushed. Sora and the others would never stop bothering him, if they saw him working with the lady they always saw behind the counter. _Perhaps the armor shop would be better..._

As he continued on his job hunt, a weird sensation began to creep down his back.

At the beginning, he took it as a reaction upon the what-if's, whether he would find a decent workplace or just one, at all. But the more the time went, the more anxious he felt himself becoming. Roxas couldn't quite shake the feeling off, nor could he stop watching over his shoulder uneasily. The blond teen still wearing the school's dress code took quick scans over the crowd, not sure why he was doing it. He was almost about to tell himself, how stupid this was, when he caught a glimpse of something. Standing in between the wandering crowd, was a person, but whose appearance completely clashed with the citizens'.

Roxas blinked; he went to rub his eye with a curled palm, uncertain if he was just confusing his sight with imagination. When he looked up again, there was nothing but the herd of shoppers passing him by.

He shook his head; had he been visualizing it? Maybe he had (or maybe it was just a long day, and he needed rest).

Even now the feeling didn't cease, but it was put off mind, since he didn't know what it could possibly mean.

The boy left the market street and took the next-arriving train, after having decided to continue on the search tomorrow. He should nearly forget about starting the assignment; he would not be able to afford that. The side of his head laid against the thick window, his eyelids dropping momentarily over his blue eyes.

The image didn't leave his mind.

"What was that...?" He muttered under his breath confusedly. _If only I could have gotten a clear view on that guy..._

As soon as the train steadily began its wheels, Roxas raised up his head to catch the sight of station tower. A smile formed on his lips, seeing the towering construction as it rang the bells. However, the grin fell a bit, when he spotted a shape that normally didn't belong on the building. It stood there like an ominous figure, as if waiting for an oncoming storm.

Roxas furrowed his brows, unable to take off his eyes on that particular silhouette, up till a group of trees passed quickly the window.

By the time the view was clear, the figure was gone.

* * *

**Author's note:**

Sorry, it's a bit shorter than the first chapter, but I was losing ideas of what else to add. Either way, it turned out pretty well; better than I hoped for! I kind of hate thinking up full names for characters without surnames, because it takes so long - but it always leaves a satisfying feeling, once you've found a good one. It's probably not even right, but at least I tried.

Wondering what that strange figure in the distance is? Only one way to find out, and that's following the story.

Also, just got Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD remix yesterday! I almost stayed up throughout the entire night playing it with my brother.


	3. Old and new links

**No. III**

**~ Old and new links ~**

* * *

When he truly thought about it, there was a lot of things Roxas didn't know about when, it came to the stuff inside the townhouse.

He seemed to be endlessly discovering new objects which, he had neither seen or noticed before. Once he happened to find a bunch of empty potion glasses in strange shapes, all stored inside a box. Then there were postcards tied together with a thread, and they were found somewhere in a drawer. He also came across a chest with gemstones, two rapier swords in a casket, a collection of shells from the beach, and sheets for dessert recipes.

The teen kept finding himself wonder: _What else could inside this place?_ Although the reoccurring question often came to mind, he hadn't really tried to ask Ventus about it (actually he never got the chance to), as the other blond was most of the time busy. Sometimes he was deeply absorbed in what, he had in his hands, other times he wasn't even at home.

Then Roxas had his own fair share of concern to take care of, and the matter just went past recollection yet again.

He should almost call the narrow building a b&b place for secrets and mysteries to live in (except for they stayed and never left).

There was, however, one thing he repeatedly saw, but had not the slightest knowledge of what it was.

It was during a sunday afternoon when, he finally managed to ask about the case inside the office. It was a considerably large trunk, standing behind the wooden desk and closely to the annular-shaped window. It was a coincidence when, Roxas found it there in the corner while searching through the shelves for a book, he could occupy himself with. He had frequently pondered over what, could possibly be inside of it, and he would be lying if, he told he hadn't tried to open it.

"Oh, that vintage portmanteau?" Ventus had chuckled a bit when, Roxas had finally gotten his attention away from reading through a stash of papers with indecipherable script (another secret kept inside this house). "It's just an old treasure I got ages ago." He answered without a further explanation.

"Really?" Roxas replied dubiously, his arm crossing over his chest. He couldn't tell, if the guy seriously meant, it was a pirate's fortune held inside that case or something else valuable. "What kind of treasure?"

"The kind that's beyond price." Ventus told, as he glanced up and gave him a lopsided enigmatic smile.

That wasn't much to go on. As the subject didn't turn out to be a favorable outcome, it was just promptly dropped after that.

Then days passed, and he finally got to know.

It happened when, he was awoken in the middle of the night.

Roxas blinked drowsily in the blackness with the only source of light coming from the pale moon. A sound had stirred him from his sleep, causing the teen to sit up with the covers falling into a heap on his lap. "What's going on?" He groaned tiredly, too heavy-eyed to register the mulled noise. But it ceased abruptly, and he lifted his head in perplexed confusion.

He stayed in silence for a couple of seconds, then it became noisy again.

The blond pulled off the covers wearily, his movements sluggish as he stepped out of his bed and went for the door, having to try twice to grab a hold on the doorknob. Once the door was open, faint music from downstairs spilled more clearly over his hearing sense. The adolescent peered outside of the doorframe first, then stepped out with narrowed eyes, trying to get them used to the darkness. _What kind of noise it exactly now?_ He couldn't recall it immediately, not during such a late hour and with his mind not wholly in an alert state. However, as he got closer to the stairs, realization gradually dawned upon him.

The noise was played by a string instrument.

He went quietly as he could down the staircase, trying his best to follow the noise in the dark without stumbling into anything (which he failed to attempt, because he accidentally hit into the corner of a mid-high dresser with his elbow, causing him to silently cry in ache and easing the hurt spot). He was guided towards the dark living room, but there wasn't anyone around. He noticed, however, a dim light coming from the right side, which led into the office.

Knitting his brows curiously, he went towards the ajar door, keeping himself out of the light.

There was a silhouette in the faint lit room, and it was none other than his counterpart. Ventus' back was turned to where the blond was hiding, drawing a bow across the strings attached to a wood-crafted instrument. Roxas blinked, watching Ven turning pitched tunes into an unusual melody. It was strange to watch him holding the instrument so tenderly that, it wouldn't surprise him to almost believe them to be lovers.

Ventus halted for a brief moment, causing the other to flinch away from the door and move out of the narrow line of light. As much as he hated to admit it, he was certainly _prying_ into what, appeared to be a private session which, meant it wasn't for him to look. But nothing happen (or Ven didn't order him to step inside and demand a justification), so he tried to see what the reason was.

Instead of seeing the violin-playing barista with a displeased face as he had expected, he only saw him scribbling down a few symbols and dots on a sheet lying on the music stand rooted next to him. And just like that, he resumed the playing, starting from the beginning.

_He must be composing..._ Roxas thought, because he had never heard such music before. The boy realized late, that he had been holding his breath, too anxious about getting caught by _Ven, the violinist._

_Huh... wonder why that sounded funny._

"Are you going to stay there or come in?"

_Crap._ The teen felt his throat turn dry at the sudden.

Ventus had stopped playing, now looking fixed in the direction of the door. It wouldn't do any justice to flee off, and he certainly didn't want his newfound friend to think of him as a snooper. Swallowing down any last nerves, Roxas grasped the doorknob tightly and shoved it warily. "I'm really sorry,-" he blurted out instantly, once they were face-to-face. "- I didn't know what it was. There was this sound that woke-"

"Roxas, before you freak totally out," Ven could barely put in his two cents, before the blond's distressed explanation would end, "- you're okay, got it? It's fine."

At least it saved Roxas from any potential danger, so the momentarily startled juvenile nodded shortly (more to reassure himself than anything) and stepped closer to the desk. He glanced briefly at the instrument in Ven's hands, before looking back up at the said boy. "So... I didn't know that, you played the violin."

"Well... It's a long story. I have been able to, since I was 5." Ventus responded, saying it as if it was just a trivial fact. "But I can't remember that last time I actually did play." The bow was above the strings, as he took up position again.

"Right. Just another thing you forgot to mention?" Roxas asked with lidded eyes, when the unidentifiable music played again.

_Just like the same time with the guy's name, along other things left untold._

Not that he really minded it, despite getting confused over why he wasn't as annoyed, as he thought himself to be. Perhaps he just allowed the other to carry on as an offbeat, not seeing the point of trying to yank out every riddle hidden inside that head.

From the corner of his eye, he once more detected the old portmanteau on the floor, except for there was a blatant change. The case was open, but it didn't contain anything. "Wait," He turned to stare at the violin again, starting to comprehend what it meant. "- the **violin** is the treasure?"

Ventus stopped and returned the look guilelessly. "Yes."

"The '_beyond of the price_'-treasure?" He couldn't believe it. Obviously, he either misunderstood the concept of riches, or Ven was just out to mess with him.

"Yes, that's the one." the said barista told again without a hint of guilt. While gazing at the instrument, he continued; "I got it as a gift. Although, I'd have to admit (here he raised his head to crook a smile at the other), I hated it at the beginning."

"Why?" it had already been asked, before Roxas could stop himself.

"Because I was mischief-maker, and I wanted to play more." The blond naturally said with a shrug, placing the end of the violin on top of his shoulder again. "I couldn't, though, not with the long hours of violin lessons. It seemed to be _endless_ in those days."

Roxas didn't know what expression to make or what to respond. Seeing Ventus as a rascal, even during a young age, was weird to imagine (most because the guy did anything but pull pranks on innocent citizens). Or maybe the thought wasn't so strange, after all... Almost any regular joe had been out into some trouble at least once in their childhood, even he had with his brother.

And just like all conversations with his roommate, this one ended unanticipatedly.

Roxas went back to his room in hopes of catching enough sleep for the classes tomorrow, which didn't happen.

* * *

"What's up, Roxas? You don't look so fit..." Sora was watching the blond teen sitting behind him with worry, his head cocked slightly.

Roxas let out a tired groan. His face was pressed against his palm, which was trying to keep his head up.

"Couldn't sleep?"

"It's my roommate." He grumbled, but sounded more irritated than he truly intended or felt. "He was up all night playing _Mozart_ on his violin."

"He's a violinist now?" Sora had to keep his sniggering for himself, if he didn't want to get caught. The brown-haired boy was like an audience to Roxas' occasional storytelling about **The peculiar cases of Ventus Fides**.

_'It should be a title to a book!'_ he had suggested jokingly.

Sora whispered with an amused grin, "What's he going to be next? A junior magician? Maybe he'll pull a rabbit out of a hat for you - or even better, read your fortune."

"If what you say, turns out to be true, I'm going to have a permanent headache." And he really hoped that it wasn't the case, even with Sora's vast imagination, it might as well be true, if the matter came to his doubleganger.

"Look at you, all snappy and glaring." The brunette told under his breath, giving the blond a sympathetic smile.

"Oh really? I've barely **_noticed_**." Roxas continued sarcastically in a hiss, accidentally raising his voice a notch.

Sora's face humorously froze into a '_I've just got caught red-handed_'-expression, upon hearing the teacher clearing their throat in annoyance. Too bad that Roxas couldn't bring himself find the amusement in it, because he was also caught in the adult's radar.

"Do you have anything, you would like to dispute to the class, mr. Fair?" The teacher asked in a deadpan, one of his eyebrows raised dangerously.

"Uh- no, sir." Sora beamed nervously, turning full over to his desk. "Won't happen again, sir."

"Promises are meaningless, if they're not kept, **mr. Fair**." The adult drawled unimpressively, lowering his glasses an inch to give a fixed stare at the brown-haired teen, which earned him a cold sweat from the student. _God_, Roxas felt bad for Sora, but then he faced the same doom and froze too. "Let's not forget about you, as well."

"Sorry," the blond cringed at the glare, suddenly ashamed to be currently in the kind of spotlight that, no one liked.

The period ended after an half hour later, and the teacher didn't leave without having a word with both of the boys.

"Well, that was terrifying." Sora heaved out a long sigh, his posture resembling to how people looked extremely exhausted. "Honestly, he can be such a nightmare sometimes..."

"I still don't understand why, your brother's friends with him." Roxas replied incredulously, arms wrapped casually around himself with his back pressed against the locker next to Sora's. "Or how it happened, actually."

The other boy made a pensive face, pulling out the next class' books and replacing them with the ones that, he didn't need anymore. "Well... Zack likes his friends, even if some of them were as strict as Tseng." Hearing Sora using the Modern History teacher's first name, instead of calling him 'teacher' respectively like every student should, was surprisingly not as strange as it might appear to others. "I believe that, Zack thinks he's good deep down and behind all that (he gestured with his free hand at the next word) sour-faced exterior." The door to his locker was shut firmly with an effortless shove.

"No doubt that you're brothers..." Roxas stated with a sigh, detaching himself from the row of lockers to stand upright, though, he kept his arms crossed. It was like the same case with how, Sora was friends with Riku; not that he disliked the latter entirely (just when he was being an insanely annoying know-it-all). Sora had occasionally agreed that the silvery blue-haired guy was infuriating from time to time, but the brunette was never really to hold grudges for an extended period of time and was more forgiving, if anything.

"You mean, how I'm best buds' with Riku?" The other teen laughed slightly, stuffing the books inside his backpack. "Hey, he's not that bad! Just- you know, really-"

"Self-absorbed?"

"That's harsh. I was gonna say 'confident'."

It was the last that, managed to be said, before both of them had to wave with '_see-you_'s and split up to go to their separate classes.

School hours ended quite early, though, with a few classes to attend to.

Roxas met up with his friend again by the gate. He had made an agreement with the other to hang out in the Market Street, maybe to stop by some of the stores, if required. As they went down the path towards the centrum, he looked over his shoulder edgily from time to time. Sora had furrowed his brows concernedly, and when Roxas steered his face back to the front, he noted the expression from the other.

"Something's bothering you?"

"Oh, it's nothing." He guaranteed a bit too quickly to be convincing enough, "I just thought, I saw something." Which wasn't a lie, as much as he wished it to be. Paranoia was just such a pain, and he certainly didn't need any of it. Yet, the boy was having a hard time with shaking off the disquietness. As he turned to glance behind again, Roxas sensed himself stiffen.

A figure in the distance was _watching_ him.

He gulped visibly, wondering if it was the same one that, he saw days ago. _Or was it something else...? _He never got know when, a hand grabbed his arm without warning, almost causing him to jump out of his skin.

"You gotta see this!" Sora had caught something from his peripheral vision, now dragging the other towards a towering building.

"Wha-?" Roxas narrowly came back to his senses, quickly turning his head over his shoulder again.

_He's gone._

As they reached the desired spot, Sora pointed at a large poster hanging on the building's wall, instantaneously teeming with exhilaration. "There's a next Struggle Tournament, and it's happening on Halloween..!"

Roxas looked blankly, not following. "_A Struggle Tournament_..?" He repeated questioningly, gazing up at the decorative poster screaming the title with sizable letters.

"Yeah, it's a popular competition here," Sora explained further, hardly being able to lower the brightness in his face a tad. "-but it's only held during special occasions or summer vacation. I've participated more than once or twice."

"You don't say..." The blond responded distractedly, still unsettled by the shape that was trailing him for some purpose.

He shook off the thought briskly, though, forcing it aside. Maybe he was just seeing things and getting paranoid for no reason. The boy put his attention to the placard; in reality, Roxas wasn't much of a fighter, despite having a few spares with the brunette's older brother during younger days. It was truly Sora who, was more capable than he was when, it came to these things. Yet, as he tilted his head a bit to the left, looking closely at the poster, it somehow got his interest sparked. Once he looked away, though, the blond spotted some of the students from their school, apparently in the middle of a talk. He blinked slightly, recognition beginning to surface on his face.

_That's Olette; the girl from the Barista shop._

She was with two other boys who, wore the school uniform as well. "Sooo?" The taller one of the teens inquired in a teasing tone. "How's it going with your co-worker at the part-time job, you have? Must be delightful, huh?" Roxas remembered seeing the guy around school, but he never really tried to approach him.

Olette looked quite upset by what, was asked to her, an irritated frown on her lips. "For the last time, Hayner! We're just friends, nothing more...!"

"Awh, come on! I can totally see, how you look at him!" the wild-haired boy sniggered, earning a punch on his arm from the brunette.

_Are they talking about Ven?_ Out from what Roxas could hear, it sounded like the state of affairs. It was funny, how people knew of his counterpart's existence, but only a few had ever tried to actually talk to him. He speculated on why that was so, in spite of commonly seeing the other blond without company. He never thought of Ven to be the lonely wolf type, but the thought had simply never crossed his mind.

Before he was aware of it, Olette had caught the sight of both Sora and him, and suddenly she was calling them. Both of the male students (he recalled the other guy as Pence, once stumbling into him in the hallway and was mistaken to be Ventus) turned to look in their direction as well, but Hayner kind of lost his colors when, he met eye-to-eye with the blond.

"Oh, hey!" And _of course_ Sora had to go over to them and have a little chat, which led Roxas to _having to follow_ him. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Just hanging out. We thought about stopping by the ice cream shop, before it really gets too late to have some." Olette smiled in reply, looking like she was secretly grateful for the two appearing during a moment of distress. "Care to join us?"

"There's a special offer, too, since they didn't want the ice cream to go to waste." Pence informed matter-of-factly, probably the most patient and relaxed one of the pack.

"Sure, why not? The more, the merrier."

_What a social-butterfly..._ The blond thought, watching how Sora so easily accepted the proposal with an carefree grin.

"You should join too, Roxas..!" the shorter boy suggested cheerily.

The asked teen wanted to answer with a 'no thanks' but got interrupted, when Hayner butted in with a baffled look.

"Wait a sec- What did you call him?"

"Roxas. That's his name, didn't you know?"

"Heck, if I did!"

"Oohh, that's right,-" the girl in the group began to say, realizing something. "I forgot to tell you about this..." Olette looked between Hayner (and for some reason) Roxas, debating on how she should explain it to the wild-haired one. Eventually, she ended up with whispering to the guy's ear; Hayner's face displayed a funny set of expressions, as he got more and more to know.

"You what? Are you serious? -Man, do none of you guys ever tell me anything?"

When she finished, he looked less troubled and more at ease. "Well, what d'ya say? Whoops, huh?" the boy shrugged his shoulder a bit, then extended his hand towards the blue-eyed blond. And just like that, every former mystifications and bellyaching was cast aside. "Hayner's the name. It's cool meeting you, Roxas." he beamed a boyish grin, almost as wide as Sora's.

Roxas had an idea of why, the other boy thought that, he was someone else (he lost count of how many times it had already happened), but he grasped his hand with his, anyway. "-Uh, nice meeting you, too." He replied with a slight smile, but it was thrown off, as soon as he felt an arm dropped around his shoulders, forced to bend his head.

"Hey, chillax! No need to go shying around with us." The other told positively, letting him off unscathed. "If you want company, and you can go to us." He pointed at himself, followed by gesturing towards Pence and Olette. Roxas felt a smile crawling up to his face, the grin unremovable. Hayner's upbeat nature was quite overwhelming for the blond, but it was much more refreshing compared to getting peering eyes watching him 24/7.

"Guys, the poster's up!" Pence suddenly called to get his two companions' attention, waving at them to come over.

"It is?!" Hayner ran speedily to the shorter boy, then struck a fist in anticipation. "Aw yes! It's finally here!" Roxas heard the guy say, as the rest reached the place less excitedly.

"You're gonna partake the competition, too?" Sora asked the wild teen.

"Uh huh, 'course I am." Hayner grinned confidently, "Just you wait - I'll beat you this time for sure."

"Okay, you're on." Sora grinned, accepting the challenge.

"Roxas, what do you say?" All turned towards the direction of the blond, while Hayner talked again. "You're up for it?"

"- Huh?" The boy in question blinked. _Wait, they want me to **join**?_ Roxas widened his blue eyes, immediately getting self-aware. There was no way he'd be able to go very far in the tournament. Unlike his brown-haired childhood friend, he didn't do sword-fighting for fun. Roxas was a city boy with the headphones and the skills on skateboards, and maybe he knew a bit of fighting, but he never truly put out his best to get better. "Erh, I think I'd pass."

Hayner dropped his cheery smile straightaway, "Awh, why not? Not exactly your thing?"

"Come on, Roxas." Sora patted the blond's back encouragingly, trying to change his mind. "You could test your strength and just have fun. Who knows? You might surprise people and even yourself."

"That's easy for you to say," Roxas eyed the boy skeptically, but was drawn to look up to the Struggle Tournament poster again. He really didn't think he could win, not even one match. The teen frowned in deep thought, contemplating of whether to leave it be and pass - or if he should be spontaneous for once and take the chance?

"... I must be out of my mind." He managed to utter out, before getting into a bone-crushing embrace by his friend.

"So you're joining?!" The delight in Sora's voice was dazzling bright, causing him to laugh.

Roxas pulled away from the hug, starting to wonderl if this wasn't such a good idea again. "Sure, I'll try to survive."

"We should celebrate this with a round of ice cream!" Pence declared with a toothy smile, in which everyone absolutely couldn't refuse to. "Let's go then!"

It started with just Roxas tagging along with his pal, and suddenly they were five in total. Maybe the blond teen had been too busy with his new friends, getting an ice cream with Sea-salt flavor (the others recommended it to be extremely good, although he had his doubts), then hearing everyone talk animatedly about various of things and of course the tournament.

He probably didn't realize it at this enjoyable moment, but secluded eyes followed him from a far... watching and waiting.

* * *

**Author's note:**

This took a bit longer to finished than I wanted, thanks to my laptop freezing before I could save. Had to rewrite everything again and make a few changes, since I couldn't remember the exactly words I wrote before.

I've just finished the first game in KH 1.5, so moving on to Chain of Memories! This sure bring back the old days, except it was on nintendo and in pixel graphics.

So, the story so far: we got to see Hayner and Pence this time around, and had Riku and Tseng mentioned. And we now know more what Sora's relationship is to Zack. I hope it doesn't look weird, just simply thought they'll be fitting as brothers. After all, both share some massive traits, right?


	4. Out of practice

**No. IV**

**~ Out of practice ~**

* * *

Roxas was already getting cold feet.

The Plaza was this large space that, was placed two or three streets away from the Market Street. Although, it wasn't as prodigious as the mentioned area, it was still here, the Struggle Tournament would be held and had been for the last couple of years (or so he was told by his friend). On their way towards the place, Sora had in the meantime told him about some new techniques, in which he had fine-polished, and how much he wanted to show them to him along with the rest of the pack waiting for their arrival.

It did not as much as cheer him up, however, because Roxas knew of no techniques, and he did not look forward to learn the ones Sora mastered.

It was just supposed to be a regular day in the middle of October. Fall break had just begun.

His friend had of course spontaneously dragged him outside to begin their training for the Struggle Tournament, despite his protests and lack of enthusiasm.

What was nerving, too, was the the fact that, his roommate was tailing behind them.

Ven, the boy with the strange name, took it very calmly, when Sora came to pick up Roxas and got his greatest shock in his lifetime.

It was around an hour ago, when it all happened.

There had been an ardent rapping on the front door of the townhouse, and Ven sat in his usual position on the armchair (back against the left armrest with the support of a cushion, legs on top of the right), while Roxas sat cross-legged by the low coffee table on the carpeted floor with the support of a pillow beneath him. He had intended to get his vacation homework done as soon as possible. When the knocking came, both of them had lifted their heads to stare at each other, seeing who was going to stand up.

It was Ventus, who complied to answer the door.

The teen went over towards the front entrance, unlocking all the different kinds of locks swift and effortlessly (Roxas had found it ridiculous to have so many of them on one door). He pulled on the handle and came into vision for the visitor.

"Yes?" He asked politely, having never seen the guy before.

He was stunned, though, when he was brought into a heartfelt squeeze and yelped.

"I've been looking everywhere for you!" The other said in relief, completely oblivious to Ven's undeniable confusion. The stranger looked at his surrounding, a face of awe appearing. "Man, this place is hard to find. I didn't know you lived in such a house."

"Uhm... Do we..?" The blond pulled off the embrace; he didn't want to sound rude, even if he didn't even know who, the boy in front of him, was. He was then immediately at an arm's distance from the other, feeling like he was getting inspected with both of his shoulders held.

"Don't tell me, you've forgotten." The stranger said in a laugh, dropping down the duffel bag he had been carrying around. "Training, remember? We agreed, before vacation started."

Ven blinked, his face getting more puzzled. "What tranin-..?"

"Who's at the door?" Roxas had suddenly appeared by the doorframe connecting the short hallway and the living room together; the sound of his counterpart yelping had made him cease his hand from scribbling. Unfortunately, he had to do a double take by the sight in front of him. The undoubtable shock on Sora's face, when the brunette saw his friend by the doorframe, caused the blond to pale.

_Oh god..._ he thought, knowing what was coming at him.

The rest was a bit confusing, so Roxas didn't bother to recall any more of the memory (in case of headache).

Once they reached the Plaza, everyone the teen had befriended were a distance away from them, with Hayner casually holding a struggle bat and supporting it with his shoulder. This was also the first time that, he saw them in casual attire, instead of the school uniform.

Pence spotted the three of them, notifying his best friends of their approach.

"Well! Took you guys a while to come around." Hayner said, waving with his free hand.

It was Olette, who first took notice of the third boy behind Sora and Roxas, utterly surprised to see him here when, it usually happened at work. "Ven? You came along, too?" Hayner and Pence turned to see who, their friend was talking to, and boy... did they get surprised in a different way.

"I was asked by Sora to join," Ven admitted with a smile, not in the slightest minding the looks he got. "he's hard to refuse to."

Olette giggled at that, her palm half-covering her mouth. "So I've heard. I didn't know you were the kind for competition, though?"

The boy shook his head slightly, "I'm not. Just here as a supportive audience."

It was quite new for Roxas to watch Ven being friendly with people... not that the other was unsociable; he just hadn't seen him around others than himself. But then again... Olette and Ventus did work together in the Coffee Shop, so it wouldn't be strange to see them converse as fellow staff members.

"We should get started, though." Olette told, once she had finished the chatting. She turned towards him, ready to guide and do some few explaining. "Roxas. In order to be a participant, you have to know the basics and the tournament's rules. I'm sure Hayner can teach you them all."

_That sounded okay... somehow. _Sure, Roxas didn't know, how much experience Hayner had, but he felt like, the guy was reliable.

"Wait a sec, who made you the decision-maker?" The said wild-haired boy suddenly broke in and blurted out, clearly hadn't volunteered for the instructor position.

"Just do it," The girl pressed on, folding her arms over her waist. "Or you don't want to help out a friend in need?"

Hayner's jaw went slack for a moment, before realizing what she was trying to do. "Jesus- do you have to put me in a bad light?" Disbelief was on his entire face, and his eyes rolled in exaggeration, too. "Fine. I'll do it; I never said I wouldn't."

"Well, good. You can start at once!" The brunette smiled in satisfactory, causing the other to wave dismissively at her.

"It's really okay, guys..." The last thing Roxas wanted, was to be a burden for others. He pointed towards his childhood friend, "You know, I can just practice with Sora..-"

"Nope! I've already agreed, so let's begin." the wild-haired teen swung an arm over his shoulders, dragging him forward. His posture was so cheery, it was almost hard to believe that, he had been forced to train the blond. Instead of sulking, Hayner just grinned wide and deviously, and somehow Roxas felt uneasy under the expression.

"There's a lot I need to teach you, be prepared for that."

_Oh boy..._ He gulped inwardly, not sure what the hell he had been putting himself into.

* * *

Time went by quickly, when they had practiced almost without breaks.

He couldn't exactly tell, how long he had been doing this, but he could definitely feel the hours in his sore muscles.

Roxas finally got to sit down and take a breathe; everything was aching so badly, and his neck must have made a cracking noise once or thrice. The spares he did as a kid was nothing to this stuff, and it simply couldn't compare. He did a couple of trials with Sora, too. Although, he had a feeling that, the other was going easy on him, he certainly didn't mind it; he was actually grateful to be shown mercy. The worn-out teen didn't want to know what would happen, if Sora had decided to give his all.

"You shouldn't push yourself too far." Ven appeared next to him like a leaf descending from the sky, unnoticeable until spotted. He looked at him with concern, handing over a cold bottle of water which, he had just bought. "When you're not used to it, it's never good to try too hard."

Roxas accepted the water and pressed it against the side of his neck to cool down. He raised his eyebrow at the other, "How do you know, I 'tried too hard'?" As always, his so-called mirror image seemed to know everything, even when Roxas said absolutely nothing.

Ventus sat down cross-legged beside him, looking ahead of himself. He was observing the rest of the group who, had gone to buy a bunch of snacks for the time-out. "Because that's what everyone does when, they want to prove something." He replied simply.

"Prove something? Why would I want to do that?"

The other teen shrug nonchalantly with a slight smile, "Well, everyone has their reasons. I believe you know your own."

"Huh..." Roxas furrowed his brows, while gazing at his hands twitching with the adrenaline that was still there. What did he want to prove...? And to whom? It couldn't possibly be one of the guys, but maybe it was because, he could be such a stubborn, despite his lack of enthusiasm towards competitions in general. Or perhaps it could be that, he wanted the others to know, he wasn't bad with a fighting stick. "You know, sometimes I think you might be a wise old man in disguise. You seem to know stuff that, no other teenager would so early."

Ventus snorted in amusement at the comment, "Really..? Like a sage?"

"Yup," He nodded, grimacing at the mental image he got. "- and with the long beard and stuff."

To that, the other blond started laughing, shaking his head. "Well I can tell you that, I just _happened to know_ this time. Under normal circumstances, I would only notice."

"Thanks for the info, I would have never guessed it." Roxas told with a roll of his eyes, yet there wasn't malice in his voice. Ven must have 'noticed' it (he always did), since he didn't appear to be offended. "Well, you can go and play the infamous detective, for all you want." He told while twisting off the bottle's cap, taking a gulp of water to feel refreshed. "I'm just saying that, I am getting used to it. Although, I can't work out why, that is."

It was the other blond's turn to knit his brows, however in his case, it was out of slight hesitancy. Roxas never got to know the reason why, Ven was making such an expression or what he might have said to him. The other just managed to open his mouth only to shut it again, because Sora and the rest had returned from their little errand, disturbing their little conversation.

"We bought some lunch." Olette announced while waving a shopping bag forward.

_That's a large bag..._ Roxas reckoned inwardly. The brown-haired girl pulled out a palm-sized round bread in plastic wrap, tossing it to one of the blonds. He reacted a tad too late, almost dropping the bag, had he not grabbed a hold of the tip of the transparent wrap. When Ven was tossed one, too, he was unlike Roxas. The boy wasn't as clumsy, and he snatched it swiftly in midair with a single hand.

"Now eat that up and recharge." Olette ordered like a parent telling their little kids to conform. She even did the waving of her index finger. "I'm sure, the guys think they're not done yet with the exercising, but you can stop for today."

_Finally._ "I'm glad to hear that." Roxas sighed out in relief.

Right now, he didn't want to get up and pick up that sky blue-colored bat, and swing it around like the fool he must have looked like throughout the tutoring. He was the last one to tear off the top of his lunch's wrapping, taking one decent bite. On an empty stomach, this tasted pretty good for something so plain and simple.

Eventually, Hayner began to speak up while looking towards both of the blond-haired teens, scrutinizing acutely with a hand to his chin. "Well... now that you're both right next to each other," he glanced at Roxas first, before giving Ven the same look. Then he turned back to Roxas again. "- I can see the itty-bitty difference between you two."

"Really now?" The latter replied unconvinced, as the wild-haired guy took a sizable bite and chewed. He would like to see, if he really was able to.

"Uh-huh." Hayner said with his mouth half-full, swallowing his food before broadening a grin across his lips. "Ven doesn't keep on a scowl constantly."

Roxas went instantaneously straight-faced, not amused in the slightest.

He could hear Sora suppressing his laughter in the background, while Pence and Olette had their share of sniggering, too. Even Ven made a single snort of mirth, guiltily shielding the upturned corners of his lips with his palm. The blond wanted to express his disapproval, but it wasn't a complete lie, either. He knew, he tended to be apathetic (and sometimes even gloomy) more than he liked to admit.

"Yeah, I can definitely see who's the black in the **yin and yang**."

"_Haha_, very funny." Roxas' tone dripped with sarcasm, yet his pose indicated that, he wasn't so hot under the collar to begin with. He stopped dead, though, when someone who, hadn't been there before, but was so familiar, had suddenly brought everyone's attention.

"Aren't you guys forgetting about me?" came the cool voice that belonged to a person, no one could make mistake of.

The blond thinned his lips while slowly turning his head to face the guy, having already imagined the aloof look staring right at them all.

"Riku!" Sora called in good spirits and jumped up to his feet, a huge contrast to the new arrived. He marched over to his best friend, as if the guy wasn't the one with a stony face. "About time you came around! I thought you'd never show up."

The silvery blue-haired teen gave a snort of disbelief, "And miss the opportunity to watch you getting beaten? Not a chance." There was a slight smirk on his mouth, filled with amusement. He glanced at Roxas in between the crowd, spotting him quickly like a hawk finding its prey in a field. "I see you brought him, too." Riku remarked in mild surprise. Whether he actually felt the emotion or faked it, the blond could never tell. "Always wondered, how you're able to..." At that, Roxas felt himself narrow his blue eyes to return the inscrutable look he got.

"Maybe I'm just _that_ amazing." The brunette grinned widely, obviously joking around. But even then, Sora occasionally tended to be unaware of the silent fight and glare between his two childhood friends. "I brought someone else, too." He continued cheerily, like he had achieved a prize for doing something remarkable. He directed his hand towards Ventus, who stood behind everyone, almost undetectable for unobservant eyes.

Riku went unusually quiet while watching Roxas' splitting image, but his expression didn't change into one of shock.

It remained emotionless.

"His name is Ventus. Though, he prefers to be called Ven."

"I see..." The taller one said, when he and Ven made eye-contact, the other blinking in mild confusion. But it only lasted for a couple of seconds, as Olette came somewhat in between, and Ven's attention was drawn away and towards the girl instead, listening to her talking to him.

"How about we go first? One-on-one, you against me?" Sora piped up with confidence, ready and eager to began the training again at once.

"What, again?" Riku turned to the brunette, forgetting about the newcomer momentarily. "Forget it. We fought just yesterday."

Sora chuckled slightly while, his index traditionally rubbed the tip of his own nose, "Yeah, but...-"

"Maybe you should let someone else try." Pence said, gently butting in and gesturing with his hand (the one not carrying a video camera) towards the others.

"Sure, I didn't say, I would mind it." Sora grinned in a carefree way with both of his palms covering his nape, leaning on one foot casually. He wasn't the slightest bit offended, being the type of guy who, was often equable and could comply with ease. "Say, Hayner?" He turned his head in the direction of said person, "Do you wanna go first?"

The latter waved his hand in a 'no-thanks' manner. "Naah... I'd love to, but my schedule is all set for today." Hayner rubbed the back of his head, after having shrugged his shoulder. "Plus, I got this newbie to train." His hand then slapped the back of the blond wearing protection gears (minus the one covering his head; Roxas took it off as soon as the training had ended).

"Really now?" Riku turned his head towards Roxas, almost amused. "Well, I'd be damned. Who would have thought, you would actually join..." He also did a quick glance at the other blond standing behind everyone, then raised his eyebrow at Roxas when, his eyes were on him again. "And you never said, you had a twin, either."

"Guess I'm full of surprises." Roxas said with a slight twinge of hostility that, only Riku could pick up, in which made the latter squint his eyes just a tad. Seconds after, the silver-haired adolescent made a short chuckle and set his attention towards someone else, as if dismissing the blond like a trivial object.

His eyes were set on the second blond-haired, as his interest had slightly lifted. "Ventus, right?"

Ven blinked, like he had been in a daze the whole time. "Uh, yes." He answered quickly, taken aback by the mention of his name when, he hadn't expected to be dragged into the conversation, as well.

Riku regarded him with an faint enigmatic smile. "That's a funny name you got," He commented without a hint of any emotion, "like in the story books." He remained on the same spot and did nothing else, as if he was waiting for a reaction from the other.

"I know. I've heard that a lot." Ventus responded with furrowed eyebrows, not content with of all the things to say, it was his name that, became the topic yet again. Roxas couldn't help, but blink between the two. He honestly couldn't put his finger on it and tell why, but he found the scene before him slightly odd. It was as if Riku was trying to intimidate the other for some unknown reason, like he knew something no one else did. Nevertheless, Ven looked bothered by what, Riku had said to him.

_Well who wouldn't, if someone plainly told your own name was weird?_

Roxas cringed a bit by this realization; he wasn't much better than the silver-haired teen.

"You've ever used a struggle bat before?" the taller adolescent suddenly asked, his eyes still fixed on the newcomer.

"No." The boy in question replied promptly, his face now as unreadable as Riku's.

The latter raised his eyebrow, "So you've never been a contestant, then?"

"That's correct."

"Huh..." Riku muttered to himself, almost like he was intrigued.

"You know, I hate to interrupt this seemingly interrogation," Hayner had told, after loudly clearing his throat to catch everyone's attention. "but aren't we here for some _other_ reason?"

"You're right." Riku replied without even breaking the eye-contact with Ven, still in the progress of studying him. "We should get on with the practicing - how about _Tenderfoot_ gets a shot?"

To that, Ven's impassive expression began to falter, and doubt started to show on his face instead.

Roxas looked on, as Ventus grew uneasy. He noticed something, he hadn't seen before on the other's face. Was it nervousness? - No, it wasn't.

_It looked like terror_.

Despite that Ven didn't say anything, the very reaction caused the corner of the blue silver-haired teen's lips to draw up.

Riku continued, pleased with himself. "Or perhaps, you're too afraid...?"

"Hey, cut it out!" Roxas found himself blurting out, his body moving in front of Ventus out of reflex (which was new and shocking, even to himself). "Just because Ven doesn't swing around a stupid stick all day, it doesn't mean you can pick on him."

God, what was he doing...? He may have had stood up against the taller teen on many occasions, but not like this. But regardless of that, he still felt like, he needed to at least defend the other blond. Roxas did his trademark glare that, everyone knew of, unconsciously raising the struggle bat; he barely noticed his hand gripping tighter around the handle.

"I think, you've had your fun for the next month, Riku."

Even if Roxas hadn't realized it, Riku definitely took notice of the blue bat lifted up between them.

He snorted, "What are you trying to suggest?"

"That maybe _I'm_ the one, you should fight." the blond told, clearly forgotten about his sore muscles, and how his arms and legs were still screaming for a rest. He did know that, he was going too far as to challenge Riku of all the people - someone who was tougher and probably more knowledgable than he was. Yet he didn't feel the slightest care in the world, whether he got the silver-haired guy's ass beaten or the other way around (most likely the last one).

However, he felt his left arm getting pulled back, as if pleading him to stop. "Roxas, it's okay." Ventus told, "No one needs to fight."

His right shoulder was grasped, too, but it was Sora who, had his hand there. "Yeah, we're all here just to have some fun; not an argument, right Riku?" He looked up ahead to catch Riku's eyes, silently telling him to stop this quarreling, as well. The said person went to lean on one foot, crossing his ams nonchalantly. It probably meant that, he yielded to Sora's request without a word.

With both of his childhood friend and his roommate holding him back, Roxas eventually let off the tension, although he had not really known, it was there at first. Much more wasn't said between him and Riku, at least not for the rest of the first day of vacation. While everyone tried to pick up where, they had last left of their training, Roxas knew that, the silvery blue-haired teen would be ignoring him, until the practicing was over, and he himself found no point in approaching the other, either.

_Over my dead corpse..._ He thought grimly, momentarily blinded by bitter annoyance.

Everything else went normally as they did before, and he had seen Sora win a few times more than Hayner, as they fought each other. Pence kept filming the matches where as to Olette, she stood next to him and cheered out loud for both of the boys. Ven, however, had stayed quiet throughout the entire afternoon. By the time they all had ended the traning and gone their separate ways, Roxas asked him, if he was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He managed to say, but it didn't sound convincing enough to make the blond feel assured.

He made an awkward chuckle, his palm rubbing the back of his neck. "I just... don't do the _fighting-thingy_. Not really my area."

Roxas pulled the hood of his jacket over his head, before his face was turned towards the other. "You mean the Struggle Competition?" He tried to ask, although, Ven's face was lowered with half of it covered in the scarf around his neck, making it hard to see it fully.

"No... in general." Ventus sighed, his shoulders slumbering down in defeat. He raised his head again, just remembered that he should look where, he was going. "I always get cold feet when, someone wants to challenge me into a duel."

Roxas stared with knitted brows, "What? That happens a lot?"

Not that the answer was odd, because it seemed like everyone in this town was excited about the sport, so perhaps it wasn't that strange, if Ven had been asked to join at least a couple of times.

"Probably more than you can imagine." The other said in a slight uneasy laugh.

* * *

Author's note:

I know, it's been a while since the last chapter, and I apologize for the long postponing. Just been quite busy with the stuff from the real world, and it was first now that, I could continue on with the story. So, here: have the 4th chapter. It's not much, but Roxas gets to have some sort of dialogue with Riku, and Ventus finally steps outside and to be sociable with the others.

Hopefully, I can now have more time to write the next upcoming chapter. Stay tuned?


	5. Halloween frays

No. V

~ Halloween frays ~

* * *

It's been a while, since the first time Roxas picked up the blue bat.

Now that he was getting the more hang of basic combat moves (more or less), the bumps and bruises he had painfully received finally paid off. Though, his fighting skills were still not quite as advanced as the others', he did manage to deliver a few whacks that, even Sora couldn't dodge or cover himself from. It was a big improvement to say the least, and it would now take longer time, before he would be ready to drop whilst in battle. He could definitely take a couple of hits better than the first few times of practice.

Roxas felt relieved to have earned a day of rest from all that training, even if it was simply because the competition would come around on the next day.

But while he had time to rest, it didn't go the same way for his roommate.

Since the yearly Halloween Festival would be happening soon, Ven had some decorations to do at the Coffee Shop which, he needed to take care of with Olette. It wasn't just him and the girl, who were busy, but the entire shopping district was in a buzz of preparation for the upcoming event. It was quite unavoidable to notice the process of the supposedly spooky ornaments making a wave wash over the buildings, concurring the entire city in black and orange.

Roxas watched on, as a wooden beam was getting raised up by ropes, some of the citizens pulling to have it support the seasonal adornments. Even small booths were starting to fill the usually vacant public square, and he heard there was going to be a haunted house opening, too. He had not realized that, the days were getting closer to the holiday, though, only just recently. All that training had actually taken a lot of his time, so he could hardly tell how many days had already gone.

To be precise, the Halloween Festival was happening **tomorrow**.

This also meant, the Struggle Tournament would occur very soon, and the blond would be lying if, he told that, he wasn't the slightest bit nervous.

Not only that; there was also news of Sora's brother finally coming over, and it was said that, it would happened on the same day. Roxas basically heard of this from his spiky-haired friend - well, how could he not? It was practically the only thing Sora had talked about in the past few days.

"So, City-boy... You've been getting a lot better lately." Olette complimented once, a smile appearing across her lips. Both of them walked down the street to check out the decorating.

"Are you sure, I'm not dragging you away from your workplace?" Roxas asked hesitantly with a worried look, "They might need you there."

"It's okay." Olette reassured, examining one of the merchandises. "Ven said, he didn't mind, remember?" She placed the object back to it's rightful position on the wooden desk, turning to face the blond. "And he's not exactly alone in the shop, either. There's our boss as well." The brunette explained further while gesturing with her hand. She began to step away from the stall, signaling that they could continue on. "Anyway... The competition is tomorrow; are you feeling ready for it?"

Roxas made a slight grimace while following the girl. He really tried to not think about the coming event or the people, he would be fighting against. "Can't say I'm thrilled." He told uneasily, not feeling the eagerness like the rest of the guys did. "If I have to be completely honest, I believe, there's a better chance, I would be getting _one or two limps_ broken." He expected it to be a tough competition, so most of the contestants were probably hard to beat. He wasn't sure if, he could even get through the first match at all.

Not to mention Riku was included too, and Roxas was certainly not looking forward to it.

Then there's his spiky-haired childhood friend, too. Sora would not be holding back anymore, and he was pretty much pumped up about it all. _There's not a lot to set him in a bad mood..._ The blond told inwardly, wondering if his friend's grin was so everlasting as it appeared to be.

"It's not all the bad," Olette patted his arm to assure him, giving him a smile. "If you're lucky, you'll get away with it with just a couple of scratches."

"_How comforting_..." Roxas drawled with a notch of irony, yet he couldn't help the tiny upward tug on his lips. "It really puts my mind at ease."

They passed a few more stalls, before they stopped up again in front of a new one. This time, Olette had found something she liked. "What do you think?" She asked, after picking up a small pouch and showed it to Roxas. It was orange with a ornamental design in different colors.

The blond smiled at her, nodding his head. "It suits you." He complimented, giving his approval.

"You really think so?" Olette gave it a bit more thought, before she finally decided to buy it. Once the pouch was brought into a bag, they began to move closer towards the booths selling pointy hats and fake batwings. Some of the costumes looked pretty funny to Roxas, and he could never dream of wearing any of them. The brunette must have noticed the seasonal getups for the holiday, too, because she had moved in front of him to halt their walking. "Oh, that's right - have you found out what, you're going to dress up as?"

"Huh? -Oh, not exactly, no." Roxas admitted with his hand lifted to scratch his nape uneasily; he hadn't thought about getting a costume yet, and he sure didn't want to bother doing it (costumes just wasn't his thing). "I guess, I'll just show up as I am."

"What? No costume?" The other blinked, then had her arms crossed and her head tilted. "That's no good, Roxas. You're supposed to wear one." She frowned slightly. "It would be against the rules, otherwise you won't be qualified to take part in the tournament."

The blond took a deep breath and smeared his face, before letting out a heavy sigh. "Right. Can't believe, I almost forgot..." He should have remembered it; it was practically on the Struggle posters, standing plain and clearly that, each contestant was instructed to wear a Halloween attire. If that requirement wasn't fulfilled, people might as well forget about participating at all. But even if he wasn't excited for the tournament, he wasn't one to bail out, once he had made a promise.

Although, he'd have to admit... he kinda wished, there was another way.

Wearing a costume was just going to be one of those things, he had to bear with.

Olette uncrossed her arms, giving a worried look. "Then what are you going to do..? It's _tomorrow_."

_No idea._ Roxas promptly thought to himself, his hand scratching the back of his head troublesomely.

The boy simply didn't have the slightest idea of what to wear, and the whole deal about finding a costume was one of those problems, he'd rather avoid. It didn't help very much, that it was a must to get one if, he wanted to partake in the contest. "Okay, look; I'll try to think of something..." Roxas said eventually, sighing a bit. But how exactly? Stuff like this didn't just pop up whenever, he wanted it to. It had to be thought of and prepared days earlier.

_Ven could have a spare one somewhere in the house. Maybe I could ask him for help..?_

"Hey, I know...!" Olette lifted her index, as if getting onto something. She made a quick turn and waved at Roxas to follow. The said blond squinted his eyes in doubt, but followed suit and got led towards a stand selling decorative masks. When he reached her and the spot, Roxas glanced at the girl's thoughtful expression, before directing his eyes to what, the other was staring so intently at.

Suddenly, one was picked off the hook, and the next thing he knew was the plastic pressed onto his face.

"What are you-..?!" Roxas stared through the holes carved in the mask for eyes, seeing the wide grin on the brunette's face.

"Look! That's so terrifying...!" The latter giggled, taking a step back to get a better view.

Roxas took it off immediately and looked down, only to find an antlered skull mask. The sight made him blank, before he raised his face back to the brown-haired teen with a puzzled look. "You have got to be kidding me..." He told skeptically (and a little worried).

"It doesn't have to be a specific costume like mummies and Frankenstein." Olette explained, seemingly satisfied with the choice she picked. "And this is only going to cover the half of your face, just like one of those masquerade kinds."

"I don't know..." Roxas responded with doubt, examining the mask again. "It's unsettling to look at, that's for sure."

"Then it works fine." The brunette smiled, gently taking the mask from his hands to pay for it. Roxas wanted to protest, but the munny was already taken out of the girl's wallet and paid with. "A gift." She told while handing over the bag containing his new accessory.

"You really didn't have to," The boy said with furrowed brows, but took the paper bag when, it was constantly getting shoved into his hands. "Man... Now it kinda feels, like I have to owe you something back."

"No need to," The girl assured, but then she folded her hands behind her back. "although... if you really want a reason then, think of it as a way to say thanks."

He blinked, not following. "_Thanks_..? About what?" Roxas couldn't recall what, he might have done for the girl. It couldn't have been something that, made her show her appreciation enough to buy a gift.

She simply gave a smile, "About Ven."

When she had seen the surprise on Roxas' face, the brunette turned on her heels and headed back to the where, they had left the road. She continued, as the boy had to pursuit her again: "It's thanks to you that, he has become more outgoing. He doesn't really talk with people much, so it's refreshing to see this new change."

"But... I didn't do anything," The blond told with furrowed eyebrows, "- all I really did was just invading his house." (which was the truth'est story of all truth, according to him).

Olette giggled a little with her hand close to her chin. "Well. Whatever it was that, made it happen.. It worked." Her palm lowered, as she turned to look at him, giving a grateful smile. "So, thank you."

Roxas returned the smile with a slight one, his finger scratching his cheek. "You're welcome, I guess."

* * *

When he pictured how, the festival was going to look like, it was less chaotic.

The streets were almost filled up with both citizens and visitors from other cities and towns, and Roxas had not realized how popular the event was, until he had actually seen it with his own eyes.

He hadn't imagined it to be _this_ massive.

It made a lot more sense now, as he thought back to how, busy it was the day before with all the decorating and setting up small merchandise shops.

The blond had to admit: it looked pretty cool with all the lights and the festive colors, not to mention the amount of pumpkin heads scattered around Twilight Town. It was amazing and totally new for him; none of this mirthful spirit was ever in his hometown, and there were so much joy and laughter gathered in the same place on the same time. Every child and adult living in this town was here, and all of them were in their costumes, their identities concealed behind masks and face-painting. Most of the visitors were either not dressed in halloween outfits, while some of them had prepared their own ones before-handed; not that Roxas could know, since he could practically not tell one person from another in this huge, confusing crowd.

If it was possible to feel so much more tiny in a sea of people than he did back at home, this was probably it.

"Roxas! Hey!" the cheery voice of Sora brought him out of his daze, directing his head towards the sound. The boy looked so relieved, as he approached him (Roxas could tell by the clap on his shoulderblade). "So glad that I found you - it's hard to tell where everyone is in such a large crowd." The blond teen couldn't help it, but somehow Sora sounded a bit funny to him.

"What's with your voice..?" He asked, feigning a casual expression and tone, but the small tug on the corner of his lips gave him out, though.

"Oh, that's just the teeth." Sora informed easily, then showed the fake vampire fangs while pulling on one side of his mouth to make them more visible. It was a quite interesting costume the teen had chosen, with batwings sticking out and the contrasting red color against the black and white; definitely far from the usual Dracula-look and much more refreshing. What Roxas couldn't get the hang of, was the thing on the spiky-haired's head. "What do you think of my outfit?"

"It's good, never seen better. Although...-" Instead of looking terrifying, as most costumes were supposed to appear as, the blond found the headgear almost silly instead. "- I don't really understand pumpkin mask on your head."

"Huh? -Oh, you mean this?" Sora tapped the said object placed askew on his skull, almost covering his left eye. "It was sent to me in the mail a few days ago. I didn't plan to wear anything on my head, but it's a gift from Zack."

_Oh, that figures..._

His friend sighed, meaning he didn't agree with the mask, either. It was contradicting his entire outfit. "Sometimes I think, he still believes I'm 9 years old..." It did certainly look like something a little kid would wear for trick-or-treating, that much could be said. The brown-haired teen furrowed his brows, eyeing the one Roxas wore. "How come yours cool to look at? Where did you get it?"

Instead of answering the question, the latter just waved his hand to tell the other to let it be. "Where's the rest?" Roxas wondered, since he hadn't seen them all day. Finding all of his friends proved to be harder than expected in this assemblage of costume-wearing people.

"Well, I was with Riku a couple of minutes ago. But he said, he would go on ahead to the Plaza and left." Sora told with arms crossed, listing off the relevant things in his memory. "I think, the others might be waiting over there as well."

"Is it starting already?" Roxas questioned in surprise, having not realized the current time.

"Yeah, uh... The truth is, it already had. I actually volunteered to go look for you." The other said, as they began to walk towards the town's plaza. "I can barely wait, 'til we get to really battle each other." The brown-haired teen voiced out with such growing keenness, it almost worried the blond. "I think, it's gonna be a blast, don't you agree?"

"I hope not." Roxas half-joked, but felt disquieted and really hoped his friend didn't mean it literary.

They had only reached the end of the street when, he noticed people were following the same route, all of them gathering to see the battle competition.

"ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT MATCH!?"

A loud roar of cheers and howling sounded everywhere around them. Roxas was almost deafened by it, hadn't known the amount of spectators would be this much. _This is too overwhelming..._ The blond-haired gulped uneasily, as he looked up to the platform where, he would be standing and running around on for the matches to come.

"Come on, Roxas! Let's get to the stage-!" Sora urged his friend and grabbed his wrist when, there came no response from him (too frozen to react). They found the rest of their group standing nearby the stage; even Olette had appeared before his childhood friend and he had showed up.

"_Finally_. Trying to get us worried?" A Frankenstein-version of Hayner called out to the two, once having spotted them. "Roxas' up next, why did it take so long?"

"Hey, it's not always easy to fetch this guy," Sora told in his defense with his thumb pointed towards the blond behind him.

Roxas felt like, there was something missing, as he turned his head to look around. "Hey. Where's Ven?" He asked Olette with knitted brows, as she was the only one who, would know of the said person's whereabouts.

"He's still at the shop." The girl told, her index finger scratching her cheek a bit. "He told me to go on ahead, and that he'll be here as soon as he could."

"I see..." Roxas replied, wondering if Ventus would be able to make it in time.

Before he knew it, the voice of the host was once again announcing for the coming fight: "For our next match, we have our very own favorite struggler in our very own Twilight Town! Give the around for SEIFEEER!"

Their sight landed on three familiar faces, though, not that he knew who they were. They were two buff-looking guys and one seemingly menacing girl with a cold stare, and he guessed the one standing in the middle was the leader. The boy knew, he had seen them around school, and they definitely weren't the type to mingle themselves with someone like him; kind of like the stereotypical jocks.

"That's Seifer and his gang."

"What?" Roxas whirled his head towards Olette.

She looked at him, too, before continuing. "Hayner and him don't really clash well with each other. For many years, it seems."

"Really?" He blinked in surprise, but more because he hadn't known that, Hayner shared a history with the leader.

The brunette nodded, the pointed witch's hat covering her eyes in a shade. She didn't look particularly happy to talk about Seifer's gang; if Hayner had a hostile relationship with their leader, then it wasn't a wonder, if Pence and Olette were dragged into it, too.

"I still don't understand how, this guy got so popular with the entire town." The blond could hear Hayner saying from his right side, spotting the grimace on the wild-haired teen's face.

"He's your opponent." Pence told with furrowed brows to the blond; standing next to the girl with his camera in hand. "I saw the board, before they started, and it's what they said: Seifer's practically the town's favorite."

"..." Roxas didn't know what to say to that.

_To beat everyone's favorite?_ If he was so good... then how was he supposed to win over him?

"Don't sweat, Roxas!" He felt a clasp upon his shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts (once again he almost fell forward). He turned to see Hayner's wide grin, as the other did an attempt to boost up his confidence. "You'll kick his ass, I'm sure of it."

"I'm not sure, but I'll try my best..." the blond replied uncertainly, but tried to smile nonetheless.

"And for our other contestant! - This guy have shown potential strength, but don't be alarmed by the mask he's wearing!" Hearing this, Roxas found himself getting pushed up on the stage by his friends and his mask was tugged over his face. "Give an applause for ROXAS!"

"Go get 'em, tiger!" Olette called out with both hands to her cheeks.

The adolescent gulped with anticipation, once on the platform and getting handed the blue struggle bat.

"Alright, fellas... Keep it nice." The host told between the two teens without the microphone. "You know the rules: Collect as many orbs from your opponent before the time-limit. The one with higher amount of orbs than the other wins. " He continued, showing two kinds of spheres in different color and decoration; one with a pumpkin face, the other with a ghost one (Roxas was handed over the pumpkin ones). "But if you lose all of yours, the match will end, effectively making the other the winner. Got it?" When he finished, the adult stepped aside, before leaving the platform.

He was right about the buff-looking part; Seifer looked practically taller than him. Roxas raised his hand to stay civil and show some fellow-student respect - or that's what he supposed, he could call it. "Good luck." He told politely (and maybe a tad too nervous), but all he got was a snort of mock.

"Luck? You can have it." Seifer told, as if it was Roxas who had been the one insulting the other. "You'll be the one who needs it the most."

_What a jerk_, Roxas found himself thinking, as the momentarily bewildered look was replaced with an annoyed one.

"On the count of 3!" He took a few steps backwards, wrapping both of his hands around the bat's handle. The other arrogant guy stood in a specific way, looking pretty much ready to deliver some smacks at him. Roxas didn't really a fighting stance (never thought of one), but now wasn't the time to worry about that.

"3... 2... 1!-" The host yelled, signaling with his arm. "STRUGGLEEE!"

The match had barely begun and all of the sudden, Roxas was dodging a hit from Seifer, had he not ducked his head.

People were cheering from all sides, and after a couple of running and dodges, the blond couldn't remember where, his friends were standing anymore. He was, though, a little late to dodge the next hit, and the blow had him staggering backwards and slip on his knee in the not-so-comfortable way.

"SEIFER HAS TAKEN THE FIRST HIT! - WHAT A BLOW IT WAS!" The commentator shouted with energy, causing the spectators to holler.

"Agh..!" He hissed with an eye shut, as he tried to get up again. The stinging in his knee was hurting a bit too much for comfort, and he really hoped it wouldn't get worse later on. He did hear something had dropped onto the floor below him, and Roxas watched several of pumpkin orbs rolling over the stage.

He only managed to save one or two, as Seifer had already collected the rest.

"Too easy," his opponent mocked, dashing towards him.

Roxas raised his bat out of instinct, parrying the several bashes coming at him from the other. He clenched his teeth together, having it difficult to keep his stance. At one point, his foot had slipped a notch towards the back, as his defense started to weaken.

"ROXAS! GET OUT OF THERE!" He heard his friends yelling at him, but the last hit from Seifer had made him defenseless, as it knocked his bat away; it took some effort to keep it in his grip.

Another hit landed on the blond, and it had almost thrown off his mask.

"THE CHAMP IS GIVING HIS ALL! CAN HIS OPPONENT KEEP UP THE RESSISTANCE?!"

"Come on! You call this a **fight**?!" Seifer taunted, before raising his own weapon up high for the next attack. "What a joke!"

"Roxas! Now!" A voice had suddenly caught the blond's attention, but he couldn't really recognize it during the fight.

"...!" Somehow it made Roxas' entire frame to react in time, and the blond swiftly rolled away, as the opposer's attack collided with the stage's floor, taking the taller teen by surprise. He was already on his feet again, before Seifer had turned around, and the bat was quickly swung with force, delivering a firm whack on the other.

Numerous of ghost-faced orbs fell off, and the audience had made a grasp of astonishment.

Roxas saw his chance again, striking another blow and succeeded, effectively shoving the other backwards.

"Oooooh, that's gotta hurt..!" Pence commented behind the camera, filming the entire match.

"WHAT'S THIS?!" The commentator uttered in wonderment to the crowd, leaning forward. "THE EVENT HAS SUDDENLY MADE A TURN, AND NOW OUR FAVORITE IS THE ONE STAGGERING!?"

Seifer whipped the spot where, he had been hit on the side of his chin, getting furious. When the more toned guy swung his bat, though, it was dodged, and Roxas made one more hit. "You little- -!" He hissed in anger, aiming towards the blond,

However, he froze immediately when, the bell suddenly had sounded.

"TIME'S UP!" The host yelled, getting up on the stage.

While the adult was counting the remaining orbs on each of the contestants, Roxas was trying to catch his breath, still feeling the adrenaline pulsing through him due to the fight. There were so many orbs scattered on the floor, and he had only focused on knocking them off his opponent. It was first then he realized that, he had completely forgotten about collecting them, too.

_Awh man..._ Roxas cringed at his mistake.

After a while as they finished the counting, the host did a nod of his head, before turning around towards the crowd and the judges, announcing the winner.

"Roxas is in lead with **three more orbs** than Seifer!" His arm was extended towards the skull-wearing blond, "The win of this match goes to: ROXAS!"

_Wait- I won...?_ Roxas was probably the last person to register this announcement, hardly able to believe it. There were cheers from the spectators, but it sort of went past him, and at one point he heard Seifer uttering profanities, as the guy got off the stage with his gang trying to catch up with him.

It was the grasp on his shoulderblades that, brought him out of his daze.

"I knew, you could do it!" Sora beamed with so much proud towards the blond, before he went to squeeze him. "That was simply amazing, Roxas!"

"Congrats, Green-Ears! And you said, you wouldn't pass the first match!" Hayner grinned widely, slapping him on the back. "Guess, I taught you well, huh?"

"Hey, who are you calling a _Green-Ears_?" Roxas protested, but he couldn't help the smile growing on his face. He should probably feel just as ecstatic as the rest of the guys about his win, but he was honestly just too relieved about the unexpected result of the match. Now he just kind of wanted to sit down, feeling his legs might give up sooner or later.

"If I remembered it correctly..." Olette butted in while tapping her own cheek thoughtfully, "you were already out of the competition in the match before Sora."

"Wha-?!" The wild-haired teen threw her a look of disbelief. "- Oh, come on! I did my best to guard those orbs! Riku just had me surprised!"

"Yeah, sure." The girl shook her head and crossed her arms unimpressively, making the other grimace and sigh heavily.

"Man, I can't believe you. Stabbing down my ego like that."

To that, Roxas found himself laughing a bit along with the rest, but felt sorry for Hayner despite it.

Sora suddenly the boy was raising his arm all the way up, waving it wildly, as if just noticing someone. It took a half second for Roxas to realize, whom it was, because the brown-haired's brother was approaching them. "Zack! You made it!" The spiky-haired vampire brightened up, moving forward and meeting the guy on the way.

"Of course I would," Zack grinned to the younger one of the Fairs, ruffing the top of Sora's head. "I have to see you make your way through the competition, right?"

"Whoa... that's.. Sora's brother?" Hayner asked in disbelief. "The guy looks like he came out of an action movie."

"They do share the same cheery smile." Olette told in a short giggle, gently elbowing the wold-haired boy's arm.

Pence scratched the back of his neck, cocking his head a bit pensively. "I.. sort of imagined them to have the same hair-color, though."

"Long time, huh?" Zack went over to the blond-haired, making a single clap on his shoulder and let his palm stay there to squeeze it fondly. "It's good to see you again, Roxas."

"The same to you." The teen felt his lips tugging up into a smile. Then Sora appeared right next to him, and his other shoulder was grasped as well. The spiky-haired boy began excitedly to explain to Zack about his little trip to find his childhood friend, and about how Roxas had beaten the town's favorite in the match before. The said blond watched them with a slight smile, feeling a sense of nostalgia.

How long had it actually been, since the last time he saw Zack Fair...? Perhaps years at least.

He turned his face back to the stage where, the host was in the middle of the next announcement, but something strangely familiar had caught his sight.

"Huh...?" His eyes blinked in puzzlement, squinting to catch better look of what or who it was.

"What's wrong?" Sora had noticed the look on his face, glancing in the same direction (or attempted to, but unsuccessfully).

Farther away from where they stood, there was a figure in between the audience. Roxas knew, he had seen this person somewhere before, and not just once, but a couple of times. Then his face was filled with recognition, like a lightning had struck him.

_It's the guy again...!_

He could recognize the unusual attire the stranger was wearing from anywhere. _He's the one who's been following me lately. But- why now?_

The strange man was concealing his face with a helmet, making it impossible to tell who was behind it. The rest of the outfit, though... it seemed to be a sort of... _armor - _like a knight. Of course, it wouldn't appear odd to dress up as a knight on this day, but as he recalled it, the guy had worn the outfit many days before the festival.

An unsettling sensation was growing inside his stomach, making him a lot more uneasy.

What if the armored stranger was really after him...? And what if he wanted something from him? If so..._ then what was he supposed to do?_

Suddenly his shoulder was grabbed, causing the blond teen to wheel his head away from the man.

"Oh, that guy? He's in the competition, too." Sora told less concerned, but wondered why his childhood friend was reacting, like he had seen a ghost. "Hey, are you alright...?"

"-Oh, yeah- I'm great." Roxas shook himself out of whatever state he was in.

He glanced back at the armored figure again, watching him taking a few steps to make his way through the audience.

_I hope, this doesn't end in any bad way..._ The adolescent thought grimly, more troubled than ever.

* * *

**Author's note:**

I previously wanted to add some more facts about Zack, but I felt like it would only make it worse than it would actually help, so I eventually dropped it. Don't worry, though. There will be a little story to tell about him later on, but that's not so important right now. You'll get to know what happens with Roxas in the next chapter.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

**Edit:** Well, I edited this chapter, because I didn't like how long it was. The last part is moved to the next chapter, as it seemed more fitting, so I apologize for it all.


End file.
